When Captivate 2017 debuted the new Fluid Box workflow, my thoughts immediately turned to mobile training, and in particular Fluid Boxes’ ability to handle multimedia. Could the responsive design accommodate short, high impact video clips across devices easily? If so, what are the design implications when building, and finally does the sequential learning object approach work?

I thought, since this is new, I would bring you along on the journey so we can learn together, in a series of posts — if it interests you.

 About the Course

I work with Project Managers who oversee the entire multi-year project. Training is just one small part of it. Competing for their time and attention, particularly at project-cycle-end is difficult, as resources are diminishing and deadlines are fast approaching.  If they don’t fully understand the training project cycle (process and deliverables) then it can drastically impact my development and deliverable timelines. I created this microlearning course to address this.

Why Microlearning

This style of course lends itself really well to Microlearning. Microlearning and smartphones are made for each other.  I envision my Project Manager drinking a coffee and taking this 8-minute course just before our first meeting.  So, in essence it really is a blended learning model.

 Fluid Boxes and Multimedia,

The short answer is yes! The boxes scale flawlessly and provide an elegant and dynamic way to separate the videos from the static content.

Early Alpha,

One of the first things I learned was that you have two serious restrictions when developing microlearning for mobile.

• One, every word, graphic and interaction has to earn its right to be in the training, for both technical and educational design reasons.
• Two, you have to keep the file size as low as possible, so you have to weigh the use of every multi-media element (for example motion backgrounds and music overlays) in terms of how much does it add to the overall weight against the value it provides.
• Three, you have to bear in mind that different phone browsers handle video differently, for example Apple automatically loads all video full-screen, which can detract from the overall design aesthetic.

So, with that in mind my course comes in a just a little over 7 mg currently, which is awesome, considering I have two videos in there so far. I won’t be able to add more complex motion graphics or a sound design until I test it on multiple devices for user feedback. (Load times, usability etc)

 Technical Issues

This course is formatted specifically for a mobile device, it will scale in a web browser because of its responsive design, but it won’t look nearly as cool. To access it on your phone just copy the link or send it to yourself in a txt/email or copy it here. If you do use a browser, I suggest you make the browser scalable and scale it to a phone dimension.

Please Note: It will not load properly in a iPhone 5 as the screens are too small. I purposely chose this constraint, due to design impact on overall project.

Finally the content will change as I move to a completed Beta,I will complete the final two  probably add more custom graphics and change the narration as well.

Here is the link:  http://chilp.it/f36a211

 Feedback

I can emulate different devices but I need the actual phones to really tell if its rendering and playing as expected. If you do load this onto your phone I would really appreciate your technical feedback – but be aware that it will take cellular bandwidth to play it, unless you are connected to WiFi.

• What type of phone?
• How fast did it load?
• Did the navigation make sense?
• Were there any technical issues